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Thursday, November 2, 2017

Cabinet approves entire stake sale in Dredging Corp of India: Report

THE government has approved the sale of its entire stake in Dredging Corporation of India Ltd (DCI) in a cabinet meeting on November 1. There are about five-six other PSUs on whose disinvestment, the government is yet to announce its decision. According to media reports, the government on Wednesday approved the sale of its entire 73.47 percent stake in Dredging Corp of India.
The cabinet, chaired by... Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved DCI disinvestment, which would fetch about Rs1400 crore to the government. The dredging PSU is currently under the administrative control of the shipping ministry and is involved in maintenance dredging, capital dredging, beach nourishment, land reclamation, shallow water dredging, project management consultancy and marine construction.
A core group of secretaries on disinvestment, headed by the cabinet secretary, had already approved the sale of DCI. The government think tank Niti Aayog too had favoured disinvestment. The DCI stock was trading 20 percent up at Rs 669.95 on BSE in the afternoon.
The government has undertaken the strategic sale of stakes in profitable PSUs to help boost up state revenue and bridge the fiscal deficit, but has repeatedly fallen short of its disinvestment targets in the past. It has a target to earn Rs 56,500 crore by divesting its stake in public sector undertakings in the current financial year 2016-17, and has already garnered Rs 23,500 crore so far this fiscal through share sale and share buyback by the companies.
The government is looking to raise close to Rs 9,000 crore by selling 10 percent equity stake each in the state-run companies Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Oil India Ltd as part of its plan to raise funds from its equity stakes in 16 PSUs to meet its ambitious disinvestment target for the next financial year 2017-18. Earlier, Niti Aayog has recommended strategic disinvestment of 34 sick public sector units so far. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the think tank to look into the viability of sick state-run PSUs. Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “We have recommended 34 sick PSUs for strategic disinvestment,” Kant said at Crisil India Infrastructure Conclave in Delhi. The government has budgeted to raise Rs. 72,500 crore through stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal. This includes Rs46,500 crore from minority stake sale, Rs15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and Rs11,000 crore from listing of PSU insurance companies.